Vin Diesel in talks to play Valiant comics' Bloodshot

While endeavoring to build a cinematic universe around Spider-Man supporting characters like Venom, Black Cat, and Silver Sable while Spider-Man himself hangs out with Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, Sony Pictures is also setting their sights on creating a cinemative universe inhabited by characters from the Valiant comic books HARBINGER and BLOODSHOT.

A property created by Kevin Van Hook, Yvel Guichet, Don Perlin, and Bob Layton in 1992, BLOODSHOT is about

Angelo Mortalli, a ruthless killer for the mob who is set up by the family and framed for a murder. He instead goes into Witness Protection, but is betrayed by an FBI agent guarding him, kidnapped and forcibly subjected to an experimental program in which his body is injected with microscopic computers called nanites. They erase his brain and rebuild it and his body to be a weapon with superhuman strength and healing powers. Bloodshot escapes his makers, and though he isn’t his old self, he tries to figure out who he was. Things get bad for everybody who betrayed him.

Sony may have found their Bloodshot, as Vin Diesel is now in talks to play the character. Not content just providing the voice of Groot in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, Diesel is looking for a superhero franchise of his own - and BLOODSHOT may be it.

Scripted by Eric Heisserer with DEADPOOL director Tim Miller's Blur Studios partner Dave Wilson attached to direct, BLOODSHOT is expected to be an R-rated film that draws tonal and aesthetic inspiration from ROBOCOP, THE TERMINATOR, and TOTAL RECALL.

Heisserer has also written the screenplay for HARBINGER, which is about a teenage runaway with telekinetic powers. BLOODSHOT and HARBINGER are part of a five film plan that will build up to the crossover event HARBINGER WARS. You see, Bloodshot hunts harbingers, so that puts the two leads in these films at odds with each other...

Other Valiant characters who may end up in these films include the HARD Corps, Livewire, Generation Zero, and Faith.

BLOODSHOT is being produced by Dinesh Shamdasani and Neal Moritz. Sony is hoping to make it a tentpole release in 2019.